J Korean Med Sci.  2014 Nov;29(11):1562-1571. 10.3346/jkms.2014.29.11.1562.

Kind and Estimated Stocking Amount of Antidotes for Initial Treatment for Acute Poisoning at Emergency Medical Centers in Korea

• Sohn CH
• Ryoo SM
• Lim KS
• Kim W
• Lim H
• Oh BJ

• KMID: 2069940
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3346/jkms.2014.29.11.1562

Abstract

Antidotes for toxicological emergencies can be life-saving. However, there is no nationwide estimation of the antidotes stocking amount in Korea. This study tried to estimate the quantities of stocking antidotes at emergency department (ED). An expert panel of clinical toxicologists made a list of 18 emergency antidotes. The quantity was estimated by comparing the antidote utilization frequency in a multicenter epidemiological study and the nation-wide EDs' data of National Emergency Department Information System (NEDIS). In an epidemiological study of 11 nationwide EDs from January 2009 to December 2010, only 92 (1.9%) patients had been administered emergency antidotes except activated charcoal among 4,870 cases of acute adult poisoning patients. Comparing with NEDIS data, about 1,400,000 patients visited the 124 EDs nationwide due to acute poisoning and about 103,348 adult doses of the 18 emergency antidotes may be required considering poisoning severity score. Of these, 13,224 (1.9%) adult doses of emergency antidotes (575 of atropine, 144 of calcium gluconate or other calcium salts, 2,587 of flumazenil, 3,450 of N-acetylcysteine, 5,893 of pralidoxime, 287 of hydroxocobalamin, 144 of sodium nitrite, and 144 of sodium thiosulfate) would be needed for maintaining the present level of initial treatment with emergency antidotes at EDs in Korea.

Keyword

Antidotes; Stock; Poisoning; Emergency Medical Services

MeSH Terms

Acute Disease
Antidotes/*supply & distribution/therapeutic use
Databases, Factual
Emergency Service, Hospital
Humans
Poisoning/*drug therapy
Republic of Korea
Antidotes

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Process of estimating the quantities of emergency antidotes for the initial treatment.

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  Fig. 2 Regional distribution of 11 hospitals that were participated epidemiological survey.

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